Nails at Saint Vitus, 5/3/2013 (more by Lukas Hodge)

The monster IO-sponsored bill of hardcore-influenced favorites Nails, Xibalba and Early Graves featuring Nails, Xibalba and Early Graves came to a close in Philadelphia, one day after a showing at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn on May 3. Brooklyn's White Widows opened the evening, and riled up the crowd with a surprise appearance from Incendiary vocalist Brendan Garrone. Check out  video and more photos from the show at InvisibleOranges.

In related news, both Xibalba and Nails will return to the East Coast to play This is Hardcore at The Electric Factory in Philadelphia on August 8 - 12, joining names like Sick of it All, Trapped Under Ice, Kid Dynamite, Modern Life is War, Rival Mob, Ringworm, Absolution and others. Four-day passes are on sale now and full lineup is below.

Continue reading "Nails, Xibalba, Early Graves & White Widows played Saint Vitus; This is Hardcore expands lineup"

photos by Wei Shi

Little Boots at Echoplex, 5/2/2013

As mentioned, Little Boots releases her new album, Nocturnes, this week. It's currently streaming over at Pitchfork. Her tour with AVAN LAVA and Feathers will hit NYC tomorrow (5/7) for a sold-out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. She's in town today, though, and will be performing live on WNYC's "Soundcheck" at 2PM.

Last week, Little Boots, AVAN LAVA and Feathers played Los Angeles club Echoplex last Thursday (5/2) as part of BritWeek (the same venue where The Rolling Stones played the weekend before). More pictures from that show below...

Continue reading "Little Boots played LA's Echoplex with Feathers & Avan Lava (pics), playing WNYC today, sold-out MHOW tomorrow"

photos by Amanda Hatfield; words by Bill Pearis

Wax Idols at Cake Shop - 5/3/13

San Francisco's Wax Idols brought their tour with TV Ghost through NYC for two shows over the weekend. First, they hit Cake Shop on Friday (5/3) for a show with The Laurels and Far Out Fangtooth. The more gothy post-punk direction of Wax Idols' very good new LP, Discipline + Desire, is definitely a more natural fit for Hether Fortune and the band put on an intense, rocking show. If you like Savages and haven't checked out Wax Idols yet, you should. (If they are not quite the musicians Savages are, Wax Idols deliver more hooks.) TV Ghost threw themselves into their performance as well, or in the case of singer (and Fortune's husband) Tim Glick, threw himself around the stage. The next day, they headed over to Brooklyn for a show at Shea Stadium.

More pictures from Cake Shop, plus a few videos and the setlist from Wax Idols performance, are below...

Continue reading "Wax Idols, TV Ghost, The Laurels & Far Out Fangtooth played Cake Shop (pics, video, setlist)"

photos by Jonathan Bernstein

Beacon at Mercury Lounge - 5/4/13

Brooklyn electronic pop duo Beacon released their new album, The Ways We Separate, last week (4/30) and celebrated it with a release show on Saturday (5/4) at Mercury Lounge, a one-off before their mini spring tour, which begins later this month. Support at the show came from Braille (aka Praveen Sharma aka 1/2 of Sepalcure) and Montreal's Solar Year. Pictures from the show are in this post.

Solar Year next plays NYC as an opener for the previously discussed Actress show at Cameo on June 6. That show is also with Gobby, who you can see sooner opening for Majical Cloudz at Glasslands (5/21) (tickets) and at UNO's free Red Bull Music Academy showcase on May 28 at Le Baron. Tickets for the Actress, Solar Year, Gobby show at Cameo are still available.

More pictures from Mercury Lounge, a stream of "Drive" from Beacon's new LP, and a list of all remaining dates, below...

Continue reading "Beacon, Braille & Solar Year played Mercury Lounge (pics)"

Boris at Brighton Music Hall last night (more by Tim Bugbee)

Boris is currently on their previously discussed "residency tour" and completed a two-night stint at Brighton Music Hall in Boston, MA. The dates kicked off with their "classics" night on May 4 and continued with Flood on the following evening, featuring special guests Doomriders. More pictures from that show are over at InvisibleOranges. The "residency" tour continues in NYC at Le Poisson Rouge with Young Widows and Ornament tonight (5/6) and  Cave In's Stephen Brodsky and Amen Dunes on Tuesday (5/7). Tickets are still available for both shows.

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Soundgarden at the Borgata - 5/3/13

The reunited Soundgarden, who have played NYC quite a few times in the past year, brought their spring tour through the area for a show at Atlantic City's Borgata this past Friday (5/3). The setlist leaned most heavily on their classic albums, Superunknown and Badmotorfinger, in addition to 2012's King Animal, but included a few tracks from other albums and EPs too.

More pictures, the full setlist, and a video of almost the entire show, below...

Continue reading "Soundgarden played the Borgata in AC (pics, setlist, video)"

photos by Tim Griffin

Goat / Deap Vally / Moving Sidewalks at Austin Psych Fest Day 3 - 4/28/13

Sunday was also about giving credence to the forbears of pysch-rock. Roky Erikson put on an energetic show to a loving and enthusiastic audience. The main attraction, and headliners for the fest, were the Moving Sidewalks featuring Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. Any time one can catch Gibbons, it's worth paying attention, but unfortunately it seemed like some members of his old band hadn't played since the 1960s. Gibbons's familiar growl and deft guitar work did make up for most of it.

...

Sweden's Goat had the unfortunate slot coinciding with the second half of the Black Angels, but neither the crowd or the band seemed to notice. Dressed as gypsy druids, the band played a sort of jam-pysch rock with insane energy. The band wore masks, but the two female leads stole the show, euphorically jumping and singing throughout each song. [Austinist]

Austin Psych Fest wrapped up its 2013 festival at its new home of Carson Creek Ranch last Sunday (4/28). The third, and final, day of the fest included sets by Billy Gibbons' pre-ZZ Top band Moving Sidewalks, Swedish psych freakout group Goat, former 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson, The Black Angels, Black Angels collaborator/tourmate Rishi Dhir's project Elephant Stone, Clinic, King Khan & BBQ, White Fence, Deap Vally and more.

In case you haven't been keeping up with our Psych Fest coverage, pictures of day 1 are HERE and pictures of day 2 are HERE. More of day 3 below...

Continue reading "Austin Psych Fest: Day 3 in pics (Moving Sidewalks, Goat, Roky Erickson, Black Angels, Clinic, Deap Vally & more)"

photos by PSquared Photography, words and additional photos by Fred Pessaro

Pharmakon / Prurient / Kid Millions / Kim Gordon

Sixteen bands that deal in ambient, drone, noise and power electronics converged on Knockdown Center in Queens last night (5/2) as part of the Drone Activity in Progress show. The multi-stage event, part of a massive May NYC takeover by Red Bull Music Academy, was housed in a giant warehouse/factory building somewhat-shaped like an "F," with three stages (Red Room, Grand Hall, and West Wing) located in separate areas. Most of the sets had minimal crossover to the other stages, set time staggering was well executed, but those that did overlap were obvious in reasons why: guitar drones vs thumping bass lines, etc. Soundbleed was shockingly minimal in each individual room.

That many bands is a lot to take in general, but personal highlights all seemed to come from the "Red Room" where I caught sets by Prurient, Pharmakon, Alberich and others, who each used keys, effects pedals, vocals, patch bays, and samples to create their versions of industrial-noise terror. Other highlights from the other stages (Grand Hall and West Wing) included guitar-noise from Body/Head (with Kim Gordon), guitar/ambient from KTL (with Stephen O'Malley), guitar qizardry from Mick Barr, Noveller and the spazzy/jawdropping Jim Sauter/Kid Millions.

Tonight's Red Bull Music Academy events are: Brian Eno's "77 Million Paintings" at 45 W. 32nd (sold out); Masters At Work w/ special guest and vibraphone legend Roy Ayers at Le Bain (which is free); and Knox, QuietDust, August Rosenbaum, and Jimi Nxir at Le Poisson Rouge which is also free.

In addition to this set, check out another set of pictures at InvisibleOranges. More photos from Drone Activity are below.

Continue reading "Drone Activity in Progress, part of RBMA, took over Knockdown Center last night (pics)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Johnny Marr @ Irving Plaza, 5/2/2013

Everyone obsesses over why the Smiths broke up. But can you tell me about one of your happiest memories in that band?
Tons of them! When we gate-crashed Glastonbury festival '84 or '85 -- I can't remember the year, but I remember the situation. Glastonbury was very different then, of course, but it was nevertheless an alternative festival. And we were outsiders. We'd had a couple of hits by then, but just kind of stood out on our own. I felt part of something new. It's easier to be alternative at the Grammys. But to be alternative in a field full of English snobs was quite a feat. There were many, many amazing times that filled me with pride like that.

And all of a sudden, your following became fanatic. And legion.
When we gained success, we had that thing going, like a lot of bands did, where people jump out in front of cars and pull you off the stage. They climbed on the outside of hotels to try to get into windows. Those kind of things. Used to go on quite a lot, really. That was kind of freaky, especially because I was so young.

And now you're going to be 50. How do you plan to celebrate your birthday?
Probably in a tour bus between Nottingham and Liverpool. [Laughs.] I'm not freaked out by getting to 50. I never really paid too much attention to those things. But it's also because I've been able to mark out periods of my life with records and bands and those kinds of things. That's always what I've wanted. I have to say that playing the Inception soundtrack with an orchestra at the Cannes Film Festival was probably a bigger kind of marking point in this period of my life. I'll remember that more than a day on the bus with some candles. As long as people [book] me decent gigs, that's all I'm about, man. - [Vulture]

Johnny Marr's solo tour hit NYC last night at Irving Plaza, the first of two sold-out shows here. The former Smiths guitarist, who has spent time in Electronic, The The, Modest Mouse and The Cribs as well, is supporting his not-too-shabby solo debut, The Messenger, but wasn't shy about recognizing his past either. Irving Plaza got five Smiths songs: "Bigmouth Strikes Again," "London," "Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before," "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out," and "How Soon is Now?," which was the final song of the evening. And he did a bang-up job, too, and seems to be having a blast playing them. To quote our photographer, who has shot Moz more than once, "he sings them so much better than Morrissey!!!" Marr also did a few Electronic songs (his collaboration with New Order's Bernard Sumner), including their discofied hit "Getting Away with It." Setlist below.

Johnny Marr and tourmates Alamar play NYC again tonight (5/3) at Music Hall of Williamsburg (sold out). Seeing how it's his second night here, maybe he'll switch up the Smiths songs. Toronto got "The Queen is Dead" instead of "London." More pictures and the setlist from Irving Plaza below...

Continue reading "Johnny Marr played Irving Plaza (pics, setlist)"

photos by Greg Cristman

"A night of Round Robin improvs and Julia Holter just adjusted her sheet music??? #undeadjazz #redmusicacademy" - Bill Bragin

"James Chance. You too with the sheet music?" - Bill Bragin

Andrew Bird & Joe Lavano / Kim Gordon / Julia Holter & Thundercat

The Red Bull Music Academy NYC residency continued last night (5/1) with the sold-out Night Of Improvised Round Robin Duets, which went down at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The night featured a ton of incredible performers, including (in order of appearance) Jameszoo, Questlove, Matana Roberts, Mary Halvorson, Thundercat, Julia Holter, Kim Gordon, Dosh, Roy Hargrove, James Chance, Kim Gordon, Andrew WK, Bernie Worrell, Glenn Gotche, Erik Friedlander, Vijay Iyer, Robert Glasper, DJ Spinna, Don Byron, Andrew Bird, and Joe Lovano. Pictures from that night are in this post.

Many of the performers have other upcoming Red Bull Music Academy events (or non-RBMA shows) in NYC too. Kim Gordon plays tonight (5/2) at Knockdown Center in Queens as one half of the duo Body/Head with Bill Nace. Other artists on the bill include Stephen O'Malley, Prurient, Vatican Shadow, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Noveller, Mick Barr, Pharmakon, Pete Swanson and many more. That show appears sold out is back on sale.

Thundercat, who has a new album on the way, plays with Flying Lotus on May 5 and 6 at Terminal 5. Tickets for both nights are still available, and we're also giving away a pair to each night.

After the RBMA residency is over, Julia Holter plays Le Poisson Rouge on July 12 with Jessica Pratt. Tickets for that show are still available.

The "Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets" also doubled as part of the Undead Music Festival, which includes another Andrew Bird and Martin Dosh show on Saturday (5/4) at Shapeshifter Lab, where he'll be playing as a duo with Martin Dosh. The rest of that bill includes Jeremy Ylvisaker and Todd Sickafoose. Tickets for that are still available.

Andrew WK is touring as a the singer of Marky Ramone's band, and that tour hits NYC on Friday (5/3) at Santos (tickets) and October 3 at Irving (tickets).

More pictures from the "Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets" below...

Continue reading "Andrew Bird, Questlove, Thundercat, Kim Gordon and others played the 'Night of Improvised Round Robin Duets' (pics)"